US-style powers to hit crime

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A US-style special prosecutor and unprecedented police powers
will be used to attack organised crime in Victoria, but civil
liberties groups claim the proposal is dangerously flawed.

The new officer, with the title chief examiner, will have
coercive powers and can demand answers from organised crime
suspects. Self-incrimination will no longer be accepted as a reason
for not answering questions.

As part of the new laws in the Major Crime (Investigative
Powers) Act now before State Parliament the chief examiner will
have the power to call suspects to secret interrogations.

Police Minister Andre Haermeyer said unco-operative witnesses
could be jailed indefinitely for contempt until they agree to talk.
"In effect, they can be held until they provide answers," he
said.

Under the new laws, organised crime suspects who refuse to take
the oath, avoid questions or miss hearing appointments can be
jailed for up to five years.

Anyone who reports or publishes material from the hearings also
faces a five-year jail term.

The bill states: "The chief examiner is not bound by the rules
of evidence in conducting an examination and may regulate the
conduct of the proceedings as he or she thinks fit."

The examiner must be an Australian lawyer with at least five
years' experience and is likely to be an experienced prosecutor.
The person will have the status of a Supreme Court judge.

The move for a massive increase in powers to investigate
organised crime comes in a response to damaging revelations of
police corruption and Melbourne's running gangland war.

Mr Haermeyer told The Age: "This is probably the most powerful
assault against organised crime ever attempted in this country.
Police will now have the powers to break the underworld's code of
silence."

Liberty Victoria president Greg Connellan said the new laws
would make Victoria's Chief Commissioner, Christine Nixon,
Australia's most powerful police officer.

Under the act, Ms Nixon can authorise applications to the
Supreme Court for a coercive powers order if police suspect "an
organised crime offence has been, is being or is likely to be
committed".

The secret applications can be made at court or by phone, fax or
email.

In other states where coercive powers are used they have been
given to independent crimes commissions rather than to police
commissioners.

While self-incrimination testimony gathered at the secret
sessions cannot be used as evidence, it can be used as intelligence
to direct police in their investigations.

But admissions forced from witnesses under coercive powers
orders can be used as evidence against other suspects.

The chief commissioner can also pass information to world law
enforcement agencies and anti-terrorist groups such as ASIO.

The chief examiner will have the power to:

· Charge suspects with contempt and issue arrest
warrants.

· Jail witnesses who refuse to hand over documents.

· Order witnesses be detained in motel-style
accommodation and provided with meals - "to a standard comparable
to that generally provided to jurors kept together overnight".

The powers are to be used to investigate crimes that carry a
minimum 10-year jail term and involve two or more suspects alleged
to be involved in continued criminal activity.

Suspects already charged can still be examined in the secret
hearings.

Mr Connellan said the chief commissioner and the chief examiner
will effectively become a standing royal commission without the
necessary checks and balances. Witnesses could feel pressured into
making false allegations.

The Government will also appoint a high-ranking law official, to
be known as the special investigations monitor, to oversee the
secret sessions.

He or she will monitor the secret sessions, deal with complaints
and check that questions put to witnesses are relevant.

Mr Haermeyer said the bill would become law later this year.
Secret sessions should begin early next year.